Same Old Song and Dance
by MizzMoris
Summary: freak. liar. abnormality. sure they were different. but did that make them evil? everyone seemed to think so. would anyone ever give them a chance? Afterlife. yaoi. Akuroku. others may come in eventually.
1. Chapter 1

**Author note: what's this?! yeah i know. im starting another story without finishing Two Roads Diverge. but what can you do!**

**there will be some mild yaoi. which means boyxboy. dont like dont read. that easy. also. the main pair is AkuRoku but there may be some SoRiku or Zemyx. maybe others. there will b some violence so the rating may go up depending on what you think. **

**hopefully i will be able to update this regularly and be able to work with TRD. now without further ado.. please enjoy**

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Freak, they called him. Abnormality. Liar. You're doing it just to get attention you punk, they said to him. They jeered at him, completely ignoring the damage they were causing to his already fragile psyche.

It's not normal, they'd say, to wear a jacket, a scarf and warm jeans on a day where the weather was seventy-five degrees. It wasn't normal to take a trip to the middle of the desert to just sit or run around in the one hundred and fifteen degree heat because he said it felt good, normal even. It wasn't normal to be huddled around your fireplace with a cup of hot coffee on a warm summer evening because he was freezing in the sixty-degree weather.

But he had to live with it. He'd had to live with it all his life.

This was daily life for Axel Feuer. He had always been this way; his body running several degrees warmer than an average human being. It had caused him nothing but pain. For years he had struggled with his abnormality and the other students around him had not helped. In fact, their daily dose of spite had only made him bitter against the world, bitter against those who were supposed to love him, bitter against those who dared to think he was anything other than an eighteen-year-old boy in his senior year of high school.

And at present, that's where he was; slouched over, staring at the ground and hurrying through the lunchroom to his usual table far in the corner. He plopped down with a small thump, and dumped his black messenger bag on the table in front of him, pulling out the bright green apple that served as his lunch for that day.

As the fiery redhead replaced his bag on the floor, he saw the only group of people he didn't completely resent quickly making their way towards him.

His friends.

Or rather, friends due to circumstance.

They were all like him. Jeered at, excluded, mocked, all because they were slightly different than most of the students at the school.

There was Xemnas, the silver haired leader. His jewel like, golden eyes were always looking out for his friends, trying to lessen any blow coming their way. As always, he was dressed in black, wearing sunglasses even in the dimmed light of the cafeteria. His eyes were cat like, giving him amazing vision in the dark, but he was extremely light sensitive, preferring to stay in the dark as much as possible. Though no matter how much he wanted to look out for his friends, he was impaired with his great dislike, even fear of crowds, preferring to be on his own or with one or two of his friends.

Next was Zexion. The shortest and undoubtedly the smartest in the school, though no one else would admit it. Most of the school feared the small man. He was a master of mystery, a genius of illusion seeing as his father had been a world famous magician and before his death due to accident, he had taught Zexion many things and the young boy had excelled.

But that wasn't what the students feared the most about the slate haired man; they feared his voice. When he read things aloud from books, magazines, anything, strange things would happen that students couldn't explain. Things would change in ways that had people thinking they were dreaming.

Walking beside the young man was Vexen, scientist extraordinaire. The tall blonde was a wiz at anything science and was never far from a scientific essay he was fighting to prove or disprove, or from a usually non-school regulated experiment. He also had a problem similar to Axels. His body ran several degrees lower than most other students. He was considered the freak of the north, the man who would walk around in the winter snow with a tank top on and feel just fine. He was called a liar, just someone who was looking to impress others.

Finally, trailing somewhat behind the others, was Saïx, glaring at anyone and anything. He was the most feared of them all. He was considered the dangerous one, well, the most dangerous. He had a split personality. Usually, he was just an average eighteen year old, maybe a little more loyal to his friends than most but still pretty average, but there were certain times when he switched to a violent, destructive being. His changes occurred around once a month at varying points in the month. No one was certain what triggered the change but the small triage had learned to live with it.

They were all vastly different but through their differences they found something in common that drew them together and lessened their pain of rejection.

As the groups sat down, Axel looked up from his apple and allowed a small smile to flit across his face.

"Hey guys. What's up?" The others took their usual seats around the table: Zexion to Axel's left with Vexen to left, and Xemnas and Saïx sitting side by side across from the redhead.

"Someone tried to trip Zex in the hallway and Xemnas almost launched himself at the idiot," Saïx said, running a hand tiredly through his blue hair. "He would have gotten another suspension if I hadn't held him back."

"The guy was asking for it!" Xemnas exploded, pounding his fist down on the table, jarring Zexion who had been lying with his head down. He looked up and glared at Xemnas through his hair, which was, as usual, swept in front of his eye.

"Sorry, Zex, but he shouldn't have tried it! I am so sick of people thinking we are sub-human or something just because we are… slightly different," he said, suppressing a shudder.

Saïx patted his closest friends shoulder reassuringly before diving into his sandwich.

"You know," Vexen said through his chilled yogurt, "If you guys would just let me use them for one experiment, I bet they would leave us alone."

"Sure," Zexion said, swiveling his head to look at his friend, "then what are you gonna do when you end up in jail because you caused them permanent damage?"

"I am always in complete control of my experiments, thank you very much Mr. Iliuzija. Nothing goes wrong with them unless I want it to. I don't have the second highest GPA in this Godforsaken school for no reason."

"That's what we are worried about, Vexen," Axel said, scrounging around for the last few bits of edible fruit on his apple. "You don't like them, they don't like us, they say something and you 'accidentally' pour the wrong chemical and they go poof." He made a wild arm gesture that caused the others to finally loosen up and laugh along with their friend.

Vexen glared and grumbled something crude before returning to his lunch. The others ate in silence as well before Xemnas broke the silence.

"Did you hear about the new students we are supposed to be getting tomorrow?"

This earned the attention of all the boys sitting at the table. Their small school in Twilight Town never got new students.

Twilight Town was just one of those places you never left nor did you ever go there. When you were born there, you never left. You had your children there, and they had their children there and so on through the generations. You went to the elementary school, the middle school, the high school then eventually graduated from the local college; all of your schooling complete without ever stepping out of the city limits

Of course, sometimes you had the odd ones, or the smart ones, who left, or the lost ones who arrived but mostly you grew old and died with the people you were born with. You married the girl down the street then moved over one neighborhood to start your family.

So of course, when a new family came, especially when a new family with new kids came, everyone knew and everyone was excited.

"Yeah, and it's a pretty big family too," Xemnas said, leaning in. "Oddest part? No parents."

"What?" Zexion's face abandoned its emotionless façade in favor of looking shocked. In all of Twilight Town, he, Axel and Vexen were the only ones without real parents. Well, not entirely true. They were the only ones in the high school. They had heard rumors that some of the kids in the cities college shared their fate but it was never proven.

"Yeah. Apparently, there are four kids. Ones a junior but in all advanced classes, two are twins and in our grade and they live with their older brother who will be going to the college."

"How do you know this?" Saïx questioned, looking at the silver haired teen. "Shouldn't only the office know about this?"

Xemnas threw his friend a tired look. "And who happens to be an office aid for this term?"

"Well when you put it that way," Axel smirked he chucked his apple into the trash bin a few feet from their table. "Why do you figure they're coming here?"

"Yeah, it's not like people come here everyday," Zexion added.

"Well how should I know! I'm an office aid, not a fly on the conference room wall. But I did hear something." Xemnas said, leaning in so only those at the table could hear him.

"I heard that all four of them had been having 'problems' at their old school," he said, raising an eyebrow at the word 'problems' like it was the magic word.

"So?" Saïx said, reclining in his chair. "Maybe they were bullies, or they have learning deficiencies."

"Yeah, Xem. Just because someone has problems doesn't automatically make the… like us," Vexen put in.

"That's not it," Xemnas insisted. "The way they said it, it was like they were worried about their wellbeing, and the wellbeing of those around them."

"And that makes them like us how?" Axel asked, raising one ridiculously short red eyebrow.

"Well, look around you, Axel. Not only do the kids at this school hate us and make fun of us, but they're scared of us. Even he teachers don't know what to do with us."

"But what did we ever do to deserve this?" Vexen asked, desperately. "Yeah, me and Axel have these weird body temperature issues and you guys have your weird quirks but I honestly don't understand why people shy away from us like we'll kill them."

Xemnas put a hand on his friend's arm and looked at him calmly.

"None of us understand, Vexen, and I doubt we ever will. But we have to be prepared for these guys, if they _are _like us, we have to be able to help them. We didn't ask for this and I doubt they did either."

The five all shared a look and silence fell over the table as the friends finished their lunches, each lost in their own thoughts.

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch and the five parted ways, each hurrying to their own classes, ready for two more hours of torture before they were allowed to leave their prison to the questionable safety of their own homes.

Wonderful, isn't it?

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As usual, Axel was bombarded the moment he walked through the door.

"Welcome home, Axel. How was school?"

"Hi, Aunt Sylvie. Same old, same old."

His Aunt nodded in his general direction as Axel walked through the kitchen and family room to the stairs that led to his basement room, the only room in the house that you could have the heater running all year without it affecting the rest of the house.

"Oh, Axel?" Aunt Sylvie called, as he opened his door.

"Yes?"

"Was Kairi with you when you got on the bus?"

Ah, Kairi. Axel's perfect, completely _normal_ cousin. After an accident at his home stole his parents from him, Axel came to live with his Aunt and cousin. Wasn't that just a joyride?

"Yeah, she was on the bus but she got off at Selphie's house. Something about a project. She said she'd call you at four if she was staying later."

"Oh, alright. Thank you sweetie."

Axel nodded even though he knew his aunt couldn't see. Though even if she could see, he doubted she would look at him. And it wasn't like he blamed her, he thought as he relaxed onto his bed, still fully dressed in his jacket, after turning up the thermostat. After all, it was his fault that she had to care for her misfit nephew all the while dealing with her messy divorce, it was his fault she had to deal with the trouble he got into at school.

Axel closed his eyes and raked a hand through his hair as the warm air from the heater washed over him at ninety degrees, feeling more comfortable than he had all day.

He felt tears prick at his closed eyelids and felt his throat close up. He opened his bright green eyes and let a single tear fall over his tattooed cheeks.

It was his fault, all of it. He could understand if she wanted nothing to do with him.

After all.

Axel had killed her sister, brother-in-law and newborn baby niece.

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**so yeah! the first chap. what do you think? id love to know so please review and tell me your thoughts. id love your help. **

**mizzmoris out!**


	2. Chapter 2

**!!!EDIT!!! okay so i went back and re-wrote a little bit of this chapter towards the middle. i made a timeline error and it was bugging the hell out of me so i went and fixed it. nothing changed in the plot so don't worry! **

**well here it is. chapter two. we meet the new kids. and look! its longer!!! three thousand words longer to be exact! hence the longish wait. but whatever. you dont want to hear me talk so ill just move right along.**

**Disclaimer: i think i may have forgotten this last time. I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS!! OR GERMAN OR METAL WORKS OR CALCULUS OR ANYTHING MENTIONED IN THIS CHAPTER!!! I OWN THE PLOT! THATS IT!**

**okay. thats done. READ AND ENJOY! please?**

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Early morning sunshine shone through the blondes open window, making him wake up with a smile. Who needed an alarm clock when you had the pure light of the sun washing over your face every morning.

Roxas Neviens opened his sapphire blue eyes before stretching, enjoying the warmth of the sun of his face. After hearing the satisfying pops of his bones realigning, Roxas, fully awake, snuggled down into his down comforter, seeking its added warmth.

Not five minutes later, Roxas dragged himself out of bed and walked over to his window, opening the shutters all the way, filling his room with the suns comforting glow.

He needed all the comfort he could get because today he and his siblings were starting their new school. Well, all except his oldest brother who would be job hunting before checking in to the local college.

Sighing, he walked to his closet to grab a pair of faded jeans, a black shirt and a fresh pair of boxers before walking to his door so he could take a fast shower. However, as soon as he opened his door, his older brother came tumbling into the room, a panicked look on his pale face.

"Roxas! Thank God you're awake! We only have thirty minutes before school starts and it takes us ten to get there. Hurry up."

"Cool it, Dem. I'll be ready. Shouldn't you be telling that to Larx? She's the one who takes longer than all of us," Roxas said, pointing down the hall to his older sister's room.

"She's already showered and is helping Luxord make breakfast. You're the last to wake up." Demyx smacked his little brother over the head and shoved him down the hall to the bathroom. "Hurry up. Lux will kill us if we're late to our first day."

"Got it," Roxas said and he sprinted down the short hall, stepping into the bathroom. The short blonde immediately flipped on the lights, the sparse sunlight coming through the small window not enough to illuminate the room for him. As he began undressing and stepped into the shower, he wondered what life would have been like if his eyes had developed normally.

All his life, Roxas' eyes had been sensitive to light, but not in the way most people were. Instead of shying away from the light, his blue orbs craved it, needed it. In dim light, where most people could see just fine, Roxas was blind. In normal sunlight, his vision was good, maybe slightly worse than most but he could manage. The brighter the light, the easier it was to see. He had worried many a doctor when his parents had taken him in to the hospital, saying he had been staring right into the sun for a good hour, saying he was trying to see sun spots and sun flares through his binoculars. The Doctors had been stumped when they had looked into his eyes and seen nothing out of the ordinary.

While he had twenty-twenty vision, clarity wise, he needed brighter light to see and he had yet to find a degree of light that he couldn't stand. Well at least he wasn't the only one in his family with an odd condition.

Shutting off the water Roxas stepped from the shower. He toweled himself off and dressed, pausing to look in the small mirror. He leaned forward, inches from the reflective surface, and peered closely at his eyes.

He could see deep blue orbs, maybe a tad bit larger than most boys' but he couldn't see anything abnormal about them. His pupil looked a bit smaller than normal but he couldn't see anything else that was different.

"Roxas! Get your ass out here before you're late!"

Roxas rolled his eyes and shoved away from the mirror, before stalking down the hall, stopping off only momentarily in his room to grab his black and white backpack. When he reached the kitchen, his shoulder was immediately grabbed and he was bodily shoved into a chair by the table.

"Ow!" he cried, rubbing his back where it had slammed against the chair. He turned towards the person who had grabbed him and scowled at them.

"That hurt Larx! What was that for?"

His older sister narrowed her eyes at him as she sat beside him and began to eat the pancakes on her plate. Roxas looked carefully at the food on his own plate before glancing side long at Demyx, sitting opposite him on the table.

Demyx sighed and put his fork down. "Luxord made it, Rox, Larxene just helped. It's not poisoned," he said, grinning at his twin sister. Larxene glared at him and kicked Roxas' shin under the table.

"Hey!" Roxas shouted, aiming a kick back at his sister. Glaring wickedly, the lethal blonde shoved her chair back and reached out to punch Roxas in the arm. Feeling anger well up within his chest, Roxas also shoved his chair back, toppling it, before launching himself at his sister.

However, before they could do any damage to each other, another blonde rushed into the room and pulled them apart, shoving them back into their respective seat.

"Larxene! Roxas! Stop it!" Luxord demanded, glaring at his younger siblings. He reached up to toy with one of his silver earrings in his left ear, a nervous habit, before sitting down at the seat across from his sister.

"You," he said, pointing to the girl who had returned to her food, "leave Roxas alone. And you," he said, pointing his fork at his youngest brother, "stop accusing Larxene of poisoning you. We have enough to deal with without you claiming your sister is trying to kill you. Now sit down and eat your breakfast, quickly, before you are late to school."

Roxas grumbled around his mouthful of food and glared begrudgingly at his eldest brother.

"So," Demyx said, taking a huge bite of pancakes, "do we have to check in at the office before we start or has everything been taken care of?"

"Yeah, you'll have to get your schedules from the office before you start. From there, you guys are on your own." Luxord gulped down the last bit of his orange juice before standing and carrying his dished to the kitchen sink.

Pausing, he turned towards his siblings, a pleading look in his blue eyes.

"Please don't give any of the other kids reason to hate you like they did back home? Okay? We left there to try to get away from it and I don't want to see you guys facing the same thing again."

Demyx sighed and pushed back from the table, gathering Roxas' and Larxene's dished as he walked past Luxord and deposited them in the sink.

"Luxord, someone is going to figure out something is different about us."

"It's true," Larxene nodded, moving to the small mirror by the small houses door. "This city is small, one of those places where everyone knows everything about everybody. It wont be long till Hallow Bastion happens again."

"She's right," Roxas begrudgingly agreed. He stood and retrieved his abandoned bag and grabbed his brother's ocean blue messenger bad. "Luxord, what time is it?"

"7:45," he answered promptly, not even looking at a clock or watch. "You should leave right about now so you get there in time." The tall blonde reached and grabbed his keys from the counter. "Here," he said, tossing them to Demyx, "take my car. I'll take the bus downtown later."

"You sure?" the other blonde teen asked.

"Yeah, now hurry up. And remember; try to keep things under wraps. Okay?"

"Sure," Roxas said, smirking. He threw Demyx his bag and grabbed Larxene, dragging her away from the mirror and pushing her out the door. Right as he was about to exit the house, he paused in the doorway, allowing Demyx to push past him, heading towards the car.

"Y'know, Lux, you may wanna buy a watch soon."

Luxord looked up from the plate he was cleaning and looked at his baby brother questioningly. "What do you mean? You know I always know the time."

Roxas shook his head, chuckling silently. "That's what I mean. Most people can't do that. So you may want to think about purchasing a watch so you have an excuse as to why you're always spot on with the time."

Without waiting for a response, the youngest Neviens boy left the house, shutting the door behind him, leaving a bemused elder brother behind.

Roxas slid into the black 1998 Honda Accord and nodded to Demyx, who started the car. They rolled down the street, easily merging into traffic.

It was a good three whole minutes before things started to go wrong.

"Larxene! For God's sake don't touch the radio! You're making the whole dash wig out," Demyx reprimanded his twin while swatting her hand away from the controls. Small sparks were leaping the small distance between her finger and the dashboard, making the numbers dance.

She pulled her hand back and hugged it to her chest, sadness and worry filling her pale green eyes.

"I guess it's never going away is it," she said quietly.

Demyx and Roxas shared a look in the rear view mirror. Both of them hated seeing their usually sarcastic, somewhat sharp, sister quiet and meek. It wasn't natural.

"It'll be alright, Larx, you'll see." He reached over ad put a hand on her shoulder. Roxas leaned forward and patted her lower arm. Sighing, she reached over and put her hand over Roxas'.

"That's all I want," she said thickly. A small tear fell from her eye, tracing a slightly crackling streak down her cheek. The tall girl quickly brushed it away and smiled slightly at her brothers.

"Don't worry, guys. I'll be fine."

Demyx nodded and turned his attention back to the road while Roxas leaned back, a frown slowly working its way back onto his face.

What had they been thinking?

There was no way they could fit in. They were different; all of them, and their past was proof that they could never fit in.

Aside from Roxas' odd reaction to light, the others in his family had their… oddities as well, proving that they would never be able to mesh with normal society.

"Well, we're here," Demyx said, pulling Roxas from his less than happy thoughts. The fauxhawked boy pulled the car into an empty spot and cut the engine. He turned in his seat to look at both his little brother and sister.

"Remember what Lux said, okay guys? Don't draw unnecessary attention to us. Just try and blend in."

Larxene rolled her eyes and nodded while Roxas just looked out his window. He glowered when he saw a few students already staring at the new car, curious about the schools new students.

"Looks like it's too late for that," he muttered, opening the door and sliding out of the car. Demyx and Larxene followed and together, the three siblings walked through the schools main doors and into a herd of other students.

"Do you know where we're going?"

Roxas looked up from the linoleum floor and stared at Demyx, who was looking at him, eyebrows raised. "Um, no? But it can't be too far from here can it?"

Larxene looked at her brothers and shook her head. "Um guys?" She smirked when they looked up from their discussion. "We're right here."

She pointed to a door a few feet behind them. Roxas scowled at his sister and Demyx just shook his head and dragged his sister and brother behind him. He pulled open the door, pasted a smile on his face and approached the secretary.

"Hello. My name is Demyx Neviens and this is my sister Larxene and my brother Roxas," he said, nodding to each in turn. "Our brother Luxord called yesterday saying we would be starting today."

The small, wispy brunette woman, looked over her half-moon glasses and smiled warmly at the family.

"Yes, I remember. The whole school is absolutely hopping, waiting for you to get here."

Roxas' eyes widened slightly in fright and Larxene narrowed her eyes. Shocked, Demyx cleared his throat and leaned closer to the secretary.

"O-our brother had asked that the student body not be told we were coming. I thought the school had agreed to that."

The middle-aged woman giggled slightly and shook her head. "The school recognized this and none of the students were told. But we can't stop what students hear when they come into the office. It's not like we couldn't talk about it in here. So we aren't really fo blame for students finding out." She chuckled and turned back to her computer and pulled up the files their previous school had sent over.

While she was busy, the three siblings shared a look of disbelief. Luxord had been very serious when he said that none of the other students at the small high school were to know that they were coming. He hadn't wanted to boost the attention they would already get.

"Aha! Here we are," the plump secretary chortled, pulling up the file. So, Demyx and Larxene? You are seniors, am I correct?" The twins nodded and the secretary continued. "And Roxas? Well, this is remarkable!" She looked at the youngest brother with a shocked expression. "It says here that you skipped over your freshman year of high school and are currently enrolled as a senior?"

Roxas nodded. "Is that a problem?"

The woman shook her head and returned to the screen. "Not at all. But you'll be happy to know that you aren't the only one who's advanced in this school. We have another student, Zexion, who also skipped his freshman year and is now in the senior class."

Roxas was stunned. He had been the smartest in his old school and was excited to meet this Zexion character.

Larxene rapped her knuckles on the desk, startling the woman.

"Hey, I don't know if you can see the clock, _m'am_, but the bell is going to ring soon and I'm not interested in being late to class, so if you could hurry up and get us our schedules, we'd like to get to class _on time_," she said, stressing the last words.

The mousy secretary huffed and straightened her pink floral blouse before clicking away on her monitor. Within two minutes, all three schedules had been printed out and she handed them to the seething, impatient girl.

Larxene cracked a sarcastic grin and snatched the papers, from the secretary's stubby hands.

"Thanks," she said, patting the computer monitor, before slinking out of the room. The woman let out a small shriek as the monitor went haywire, small sparks flying off it.

Roxas and Demyx stared at each other and hurriedly followed their sister out, before anyone could connect her to the mishap.

When they finally caught up with the blonde girl a few yards down the hall, Roxas grabbed her arm and spun her around, a furious glare on his face.

"What was that?" he asked shaking her before pushing his sister back. "You know you can't touch anything electrical while it's plugged in! Are you trying to draw attention to us!"

Larxene glared bullets at her little brother and rubbed her arm. "And aren't you causing a scene by yelling in the middle of a crowded hallway?" she asked, her voice like steel.

"What? That's…" Roxas stuttered, his face quickly turning red.

"Stop it you two!" Demyx cried, stepping between the feuding siblings. "Larx, Roxas is right. We all have to be careful about what we do. And Roxas, don't yell at her. We're all stressed out about this but that's not an excuse to take it out on each other.

"Now, can we please just get along and try not to get in any trouble?" he asked, glancing side along at his quick-tempered siblings.

Roxas glared at his sister before his gaze softened and he smiled slightly. Larxene's face softened slightly, just enough to show she wasn't still angry. She pulled Roxas into a hug and ruffled his gold hair, ignoring his protests.

"Come on, baby bro. Lets go see what this new prison has for us."

She looked at the schedules in her hand and she handed them to her brothers.

"Okay, I have first period metal-working, and Demyx," she said as she peered at his paper, "you have Calculus, and Roxas, looks like you have AP German."

"Ugh, first period Calc… no fun." Demyx, grumbled and studied the room number. 110. "Well, its on the first floor, I may as well try to find it so I'm not late. Larx, I think metal work is around the back. We can head back there together."

Demyx grabbed his sister's arm and pulled her along behind him.

"Good luck, Rox!" he called behind him.

Roxas waved casually before studying his own paper. Room 208. That meant it was upstairs. He shifted his bag on his shoulder and made towards the main staircase. He saw a boy with outlandish red hair holding an AP German book in his lanky arms and figured he may as well follow him, which would ensure his arrival to class.

He stayed several feet behind the other teen and followed him down one hall and around a sharp corner and there it was; room 208.

He had arrived about a minute early, which gave him time to take in his surroundings.

The walls were a clean white, with alternating black and red (the school's colors) doors every two dozen feet or so. The walls were also pocketed with evenly spaced windows, allowing anyone patrolling the halls to see clearly into all rooms. It also seemed that each hallway was tiled in a separate color. Where this hallway was tiled in all white, the halls around each corner were tiled in either red and white or black and white.

Roxas looked up from the floor when he heard several kids mumbling and when he looked farther down the hall, he found the reason why.

A stern looking, blonde woman was making her way towards the class, her low heels clacking hollowly on the tile floors. When she reached them, she nodded to a few students, and unlocked the doors.

Roxas paled when he got a better look at the room.

It was his worst nightmare.

The lights were dimmed and the blinds closed, the majority of the light coming from an overhead projector situated just in from of the first row. The other students seem to be able to see fine, but Roxas was completely blind. He couldn't see anything in such low light.

Holding back a string of curses, Roxas stumbled into the room, trying to get a seat close to the projector screen in the front row where the light would be at least a bit better. He tried to ignore the looks he got as he stumbled around, reaching his hands out to feel for desks and other people.

He bit back a yelp when he ran into a strong back and bounced back slightly. A lanky arm flung out and helped him steady himself. He stared at where he thought the strangers face was, opening his eyes a bit more to let in the maximum amount of light. He could make out a vague outline of a rather tall student with what looked like hedgehog spikes for hair.

Roxas back up, pulling himself away from the almost uncomfortably warm hand.

"Hey, sorry. I didn't mean to run into you. It's just this low light, I can't see very well."

"No problemo," the other boy answered, a laugh hidden in his words. "Let me help you."

Again that warm hand latched onto his arm and he felt himself being dragged across the room. Abruptly, he was shoved down into a chair. He saw through the gloom that he was now seated in the front row, about two feet away from the projector.

He heard someone sit down in the chair beside him.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" came the same voice from before. "Since we already know each other and all, if you need help and I can tell you what to write or whatever you need."

Roxas, too stunned by the kind gesture, simply nodded his head and stared at the black shape sitting beside him. As he stared and his eyes adjusted just a tin bit to the light, Roxas could see bright red and hair, startling green eyes and pale skin. Roxas quickly realized he was staring and quickly turned and stared at the bulb in the projector, feeling a sense of familiarity and comfort come over him as he stared into its bright depths.

"I'm Axel by the way."

Roxas whirled in his seat and turned back to where he thought the other boy was. He was greeted with a dark black expanse. After staring at a light he could actually see with, he was blind in the low light.

"I'm Roxas."

------------------

(Axel's POV)

"I'm Roxas." The blonde boy said, staring slightly to the right of Axel's head. Axel raised a short eyebrow and reached out a hand. He waved it slightly in front of the boy's face, frowning slightly when the Roxas continued to stare over his shoulder.

"Hey, Rox, over here." He put a hand on the blondes chin and shifted his face a bit so they were looking eye to eye.

"O-oh, sorry." Roxas lifted his shoulders slightly and scowled. "It's this light." Axel turned to look around the room. Sure the lights were dim but the room wasn't dark. He could make out every detail of everything in the room.

Just as Axel was about to question his new seatmate further, the Frau brought the class to attention. After she took roll, she instructed them all to pull out their notebooks review what they had learned the week before. They would be having a test soon. While the rest of the students pulled out their books, the Frau moved to stand in from of Roxas' desk.

"Hallo, Roxas. Wie geht's dir?" Without waiting for a response, Frau Gordwich plowed forward. "I hope you were up to date in your last school because we move rather quickly in this class, seeing as it is German Five AP. This is not an easy class and I will _not_ go easy on you just because you came to this class a week into the school year. Is that understood?"

Roxas nodded blindly and slouched in his seat as the teacher returned to her place in the front of the room. He would be fine. He was a fast learner and his AP German class at his last school had moved quickly too.

He looked around the room, staring into the blackness when the Frau's voice jerked his attention back.

"I will have you know that the cumulative test I had you all take last week was dismal, absolutely dismal. You all forgot much of what you learned last year and worst of all were your cases. You should all be ashamed. My third year German students remember more than you." Her cold glared pierced the students and caused most to squirm in their seats.

"I assume you are all taking this advanced course so that you can become fluent.. Well let me let you in on a little secret. That will never happen if you are lax in your studies. Those of you who had me for German Four AP last year know I am neither a lenient nor an easy teacher. You will learn and you will learn quickly.

"Because of your obvious failure to memorize anything, we will start our week with the cases. I will write a list of twenty nouns on the overhead. I want you to write out, in your notebooks to be checked off by the end of the period, all the nouns in each of the four cases. After I have made sure you have all done the assignment, if I see anyone who did it perfectly I will ask them to come copy it onto the projector.

"Any questions? No? Good."

With that, Frau Gordwich turned to face the projector. Axel watched as she squinted her eyes against the bright light, half looking away. He turned to Roxas, remembering how he had stared right at the reflection of the bulb on the projector without a problem. 'How can he do that when a teacher who looks at these things all day can't?' he thought.

He was dragged away from his brooding when the teacher ordered them to start.

The redhead began copying the words down when he felt someone poke his arm. He looked to his right and saw Roxas staring up at him with his big blue eyes.

"I can only see a few of the words, can you please tell me what the last twelve are?"

Axel nodded and quickly read the words off, not liking how Roxas' shoulders were hunched forward, giving away the blondes obvious embarrassment about asking for help.

"Thanks," the blonde said stiffly. He returned to his work, writing each noun carefully then beside it, writing four full sentences for each word, writing them in the correct case.

Axel returned to his own scrawl filled paper, reluctantly starting his first assignment of the year.

------------------------

A half an hour later, Frau Gordwich called time and began walking around, putting either a check or an X on people papers, telling them what they did correct and what they needed to work on.

When she reached Axel, she gave him a check for completing it before putting small X's by almost every third case noun.

"Third case needs a lot of work Mr. Feuer."

He nodded and watched as she looked at Roxas' paper, Her eyes widened and Axel saw why when he peeked at the other boy's paper.

Aside from slightly uneven writing most likely caused by the kid's inability to see, the paper was perfect. And judging from the way she was praising him, he was the only one to write out full sentences.

Without waiting to see other students' papers, The Frau sent Roxas to the front of the room. Axel watched as Roxas carefully navigated his way to the front. He saw the boy visibly relax as he stepped closer to the projector.

Axel was shocked when Roxas stared right into the bulb without flinching or squinting and began to write in perfect penmanship.

As their teacher walked around the remaining students, Axel leaned forward in his seat a bit to read one of the labels on the exterior of the machine. His eyes widened when he read the bulbs wattage.

It was high. High enough that no one should be able to look into its direct light and still be able to see in two minutes, yet here was this blonde kid, a kid he had never seen before, he suddenly realized, who could look right into the bright light.

As Roxas finished his last sentence several minutes of writing later, their teacher returned to the front of the room and began to go over it, pointing out areas where others could have improved and giving advice on how to apply each case.

She kept Roxas at the front with her during the duration of the lesson, even having him explain some of his tricks. Axel noted that the boy seemed much more comfortable while he bathed in the bright light of the projector.

Frau Gordwich glanced at the clock and motioned for a student by the light switched to flip the ones that had been dimmed on. While the teacher and other students flinched slightly, Roxas seemed to sigh and Axel could see his body relax even further.

Frau Gordwich patted his shoulder and sent him back to his seat, praising him before issuing out their homework. Axel watched as Roxas returned to his seat while he wrote their homework out.

The boy still seemed uncomfortable. He reached out a hand to grab onto each desk, almost as though it was still a bit too dim. When Roxas finally made it back to his seat, he had to peer closely at his paper as he wrote his homework down, almost as if the words would fade away if he didn't look close enough.

"Hey, Roxas? You okay?"

The blonde looked up from his paper and took a moment to focus on the redhead.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I guess my eyes just need to adjust after staring at that bulb for so long." He shrugged and returned to his paper.

Axel glanced at the clock and seeing that they still had a few minutes before the bell rang, struck up conversation with the blonde.

"Are you one of the new kids we were supposed to get? I'm just asking 'cause I've never seen you around before."

Roxas stowed his paper in his backpack and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm one of them. My siblings and my arrival was supposed to be a secret to lessen then attention we'd get." Again Roxas rolled his eyes and scowled. "I guess the office has a big mouth."

"Eh, it's not really a big deal. Everyone would have figured it out anyway. We don't get new students. Like, ever." He leaned back in his seat and put his hands behind his head. "So, have you're eyes always been this sensitive to light and dark?" Axel asked, thinking it was an innocent enough question.

The boy beside him stiffened. He glared at his desk and refused to meet Axel's own green eyes.

"Yeah," he mumbled, "been that way since I was born." With that, he set his jaw and turned away from Axel, clearly terminating the conversation.

Axel's mind was reeling. Could it be? Could this boy be like him and his friends? Was that why they had left their old school and come to Twilight Town? To escape the pain of knowing they were different?

_Riiiiinngg. _

The whole class jumped up as the bell sounded, each student scattering in different directions, mumbling to each other as they walked to their next class. Roxas jumped at the sudden sound and scurried out the door, bumping into people and disappeared down the hall.

Axel stood and quickly shoved his papers into his messenger bag, and bolted from the class and down the hall. As usual, people stared at him and hurried to get out of his way, not wanting to get near the "dangerous" individual.

About twenty feet from his next class, he spotted two familiar heads: one long and silver, the other a startling blue. He ran up and grabbed their arms, pulling them aside,

"Xemnas, Saïx, you won't believe me when I tell you this."

"That remains to be seen," Xemnas said in his cool tones, his gold eyes staring at Axel oddly.

"I'm serious guys! This could change everything!"

"And we won't know until you tell us, so please get on with it," Saïx growled.

Axel glared lightly at his friend before lowering his voice, making so others around them wouldn't hear.

"I met one of those new kids you were talking about, Xem. His name is Roxas. And I think I may know why he came here. Why he left his old city I mean."

"And that reason would be?" Xemnas asked, waving his hand impatiently.

Axel wrung his hands and his green eyes burned with excitement.

"I think he may be like us."

* * *

**kinda a bad ending but thats what came to my head. so deal with it. lol. anyway. i didnt edit this very well so if you see any mistakes please tell me. i dont want to be publishing something subpar! i want you to enjoy my stories as much as i do!**

**so with that being said... see that little button down there? yeah, the one that says review? please click it and tell me your thoughts. you like? you dont like? suggestions? im open to it all. FLAMES ARE WELCOME!! THEY ADD A LITTLE HUMOR TO MY DAY!**

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